21 causes I did not turn out to be an EMT, ranked

I’m an EMT (Emergency Medical Technician).

My most important job is software program engineering, however I’ve at all times been fascinated with medication. A good friend turned me onto the concept in school, and it rattled round my head for years. I delayed for a very long time — till lastly, in 2024, I took a month off and received my EMT.

Here are precise causes I delayed getting my license, sorted loosely by ridiculousness:

1. It will take a variety of my spare time.

   Yes; my accelerated class (NOLS Wilderness EMT) took 28 consecutive days. I used to be solely capable of take the category as a result of Microsoft switched to limitless trip, my boss was nice, and I had the cash to fly to Wyoming for the course (the same old various is a semester of night time college!). And to be a very good EMT, it’s important to truly take calls on an ambulance, hopefully greater than the everyday “1 weekend a month” minimal.

2. I gained’t just like the tradition.

   Yes. This was an enormous barrier: I had an terrible expertise with some first responders a number of years after school — dangerous sufficient that I gave up on getting my EMT for some time.

   There are a variety of burned-out people in EMS. Many providers — together with the one I noticed — are extremely fratty, to be charitable. Lord enable you if you happen to are a woman. You will hear many excuses for these points, however, sure, tradition is a big concern.

3. I gained’t slot in with the folks.

   This is just like tradition, however a bit extra foolish. Yes, first responders are typically a tight-knit, hereditary group. NYC firefighters, for instance, usually come from massive firefighter households. But first responders (particularly volunteers!) additionally come from all backgrounds — the one that onboarded me into my present place is a PM at one other tech firm.

4. I gained’t slot in with the scholars.

   So perhaps EMTs had been okay — however what concerning the EMT college students I might be taught with? Wouldn’t all of them be 18-year-old journey junkies or jocks?

   Yes, most had been, they usually had been superior. My course was stuffed with enthusiastic 18-year-old pre-meds who had been excited to be taught, and a number of folks my age, who wished to be taught medication for a similar causes I did.

   If you’re nervous, I feel it helped that I selected a Wilderness EMT program in July. It filters to that crowd.

5. I need to deal with my day job as an alternative.

   I might usually contemplate learning EMS (Emergency Medical Services) when my day job wasn’t going nicely. And so it could at all times be a little bit of an indication that I ought to refocus at work — onto extra significant issues.

   While that’s a very good sign, it’s alright to place vitality into issues past work. And, as soon as I received my certificates, balancing work & EMS has been simple.

6. I don’t need to work on an ambulance.

   Yup — I by no means dreamed of using on an ambulance. Some folks actually do. It’s their vocation. It’s not mine.

   But nobody forces you to step onto an ambulance after getting your EMT. You can simply… know the best way to do CPR rather well. That’s a very cool ability to have.

7. I don’t perceive the scope of observe.

   If you’re not an EMT, it’s not tremendous clear what an EMT can do. On the one hand, it’s not simply “driving an ambulance,” however alternatively, you want a paramedic for many severe calls. In some sense, it kinda is “figuring out the best way to do CPR rather well.” I educated with the identical AEDs any layperson makes use of (EMTs aren’t allowed to make use of guide defibrillators), however I educated many, many extra occasions than a layperson (plus I get to make use of oxygen).

   But, as earlier than, the coaching remains to be fairly cool. I cherished each little bit of first help coaching I received; EMT college was simply as enjoyable.

   

8. It’s exhausting to discover a volunteer job.

   Kinda. Big cities are likely to have all-paid workers; volunteer positions are a bit farther out. But not that a lot farther out: even ignoring spiritual providers like Hatzalah in NYC, Hoboken throughout the water has volunteer EMS. It’s, like, one cease on the PATH. (Volunteering in Seattle or close to San Francisco is harder).

   I didn’t need to work a part-time place — then it could simply be one other job, and I like my present job. But volunteer jobs are simple sufficient to search out, particularly if in case you have a automotive.

9. The certificates is simply gonna expire if I don’t use it.

   The tradition barrier was robust sufficient that, for a time, I used to be satisfied by no means to hitch an ambulance firm. If you’re not on an ambulance, it’s very exhausting to meet the NREMT’s continuing education requirements, so your certificates will shortly expire.

   But, once more, it’s OK to be taught stuff with out planning to make use of it wherever. And isn’t steady studying a part of the purpose?

10. I wanna do search and rescue as an alternative.

    Again, attempting to keep away from ambulances, I discovered search and rescue. Search and rescue (SAR) is badass. A snippet from one SAR orientation packet:

    If you might have registered and don’t present up at coaching that weekend, we are going to make each effort to find you, and we’re unbelievable at discovering folks.

    But in my coronary heart I at all times wished to deal with folks; and once I met SAR of us, it was clear that I wouldn’t be an efficient EMT with out expertise on a truck.

11. I ought to do simpler, cheaper prep first.

    I did 😃. I learn books and Reddit posts. I took CPR and Stop the Bleed courses. I took a weekend Wilderness First Aid class with NOLS (strongly suggest!).

    But I nonetheless craved extra. At a sure level — as I point out in How this site works—simply do the real thing.

12. It’s costly, and getting new credentials is an costly passion.

    Indeed! My course value about $5,000, not together with airfare, renting a automotive, & taking trip for a month. You can do that for less expensive (a typical course is round $2,000 and doesn’t require 28 days trip), however $2k remains to be fairly costly for some enjoyable.

    But if you happen to’ve finished the cheaper stuff, if you happen to’re nonetheless after so a few years, if you happen to’re excited about utilizing your cash for an expertise like this… how may it probably be a waste?

13. I’ve no actual use for it.

    So I signed up with no actual use for it! After years of delay, I began an EMT course with no plans to make use of it after. I used to be merely excited to be taught.

    Working on an ambulance after was mainly a cheerful accident, the place I met a crew I occurred to love. But it’s at all times high quality to be taught one thing for its personal sake.

14. I don’t actually wanna be taught this anyway.

    For somebody who “didn’t need to do that,” I positive spent a lot of time on Reddit studying about what the job would entail. I positive signed up for a lot of First Aid courses. I positive instructed a lot of individuals I used to be .

    I’ll at all times be a software program engineer: it’s simply who I’m. And I discovered throughout coaching that full-time EMS was not for me, after watching a girl negotiate with insurance coverage to see in the event that they’d cowl the helicopter that might save her husband’s life.

    But not fascinated with studying this in any respect? Not with the ability to assist folks; to be a supply of calm when issues are literally on hearth? Nonsense.

15. I gained’t just like the work.

    EMTs do menial work. They load & unload stretchers. They fold blankets, restock, and clear ambulances. EMTs are mainly the least-trained medical personnel in any emergency (ignoring the odd EMR). They can’t diagnose; they observe mounted protocols, they usually defer to better-trained personnel for something extra extreme than a damaged arm.

    Descriptions of EMT work inadvertently make the job appear straight heroic or glamorous: waking up at 3AM to hurry a coronary heart assault affected person to the ER. It just isn’t. The bulk of the job is ready round, doing paperwork, cleansing, and backing up slim driveways. It may be very regularly boring & aimless.

    But that tedium is since you are ready & prepared to assist. So it’s not directly glamorous. As an EMT, I get to placed on a uniform, and, whereas we’re at Dunkin Donuts for espresso, wave on the children staring on the shiny ambulance.

    Who wouldn’t like that work?

16. The class gained’t make me a very good EMT.

    I anxious that an EMT certificates can be mainly ineffective: that it could not educate me the whole lot I anticipated, or that I’d nonetheless want extra coaching on the job.

    Both issues are true. I discovered rather a lot, however upon stepping onto an ambulance for the primary time, it was clear how rather more there was to know. Every different EMT is aware of a lot greater than I do.

    But that’s essentially the most magic a part of being an EMT. It opens up a whole universe of latest issues to be taught. It is the minimal qualification it is advisable enter this planet: to work with firefighters and paramedics and docs and social employees and search & rescue and catastrophe response personnel — and to see what you need to be taught subsequent.

17. EMTs solely know ambulance stuff.

    An analogous criticism I see on Reddit is that an EMT course solely actually teaches the best way to run an ambulance. That it isn’t helpful for anybody fascinated with self-reliance or common survival abilities as a result of it requires provides & logistics solely out there in a full EMS system.

    Not solely is that demonstrably false (my Wilderness EMT certificates is particularly for situations the place provides are restricted and evacuation is troublesome), it’s additionally unhelpful. What alternate options are there? Become a physician? Join the National Guard?

    Again, EMT is the quickest, best solution to turn out to be a primary responder. A superb EMT course teaches you to be calm & helpful in terrifying conditions. A superb EMT job drills that in. When that’s not sufficient, you’ll be prepared for deeper {qualifications}.

    That was a few of the most unhelpful recommendation I discovered earlier than getting my EMT. Ignore it.

18. I can be taught rather a lot about survival alone.

    That’s the factor — you can’t be taught this alone. EMS providers have spent a long time studying the best way to assist folks successfully, and most of that information just isn’t but out there on YouTube.

    This makes the worst providers fratty, stuffed with insider information that they refuse to share. But one of the best providers turn out to be locations to be taught, to turn out to be the following a part of a sequence that goes again to the primary public Freedom House ambulances within the 60’s.

    There is various medication you are able to do by yourself in a bunker. But there may be fairly much more you can’t. You do that medication the way in which we at all times have — as a part of a staff, working with tons of of different folks.

19. I’ll need to turn out to be a paramedic and give up my job.

    This is my favourite excuse: that I would really like the work a lot it could lead me to give up my tech job, pursue 2 extra years of faculty, and turn out to be a full-time paramedic. In different phrases…

20. I would take pleasure in it.

    It received to the purpose the place I prevented EMT college as a result of I would benefit from the work. That it could hoover up my free time and vitality, pull me from my different hobbies, and even my profession. I anxious I might toss the whole lot for the fun of using in a truck with sirens on.

    That occurs to some of us. It has not occurred to me. I just like the EMS work I do, however I additionally adore my tech job. This is not going to shock anybody who is aware of me, and it shouldn’t have stunned me. And, truly, how terrible wouldn’t it be to search out one thing so thrilling that it drags me into a brand new profession? It ought to have been apparent to me that this, of all issues, was an excuse.

    An excuse to not do one thing scary and new.

This is the silliest, truest, greatest motive I delayed so lengthy:

21. It is frightening.

    It is frightening to observe medication. It is frightening to be taught new issues. It is frightening to be answerable for being calm on the worst day of somebody’s life; and for me it was, oddly, scarier to hitch a category stuffed with strangers — strangers who can be a lot youthful & on very completely different lifepaths.

    I come from the planet of software program engineers and workplace buildings. Of nine-to-fives and salad bowls. EMS is a really completely different planet. Stepping into that planet, with out being positive it was the place I wished to be, was terrifying.

    It took a variety of time to reckon with that.

Because, finally, I’m good at inventing causes to not do issues.

I like researching stuff earlier than I do it. It’s enjoyable to check choices, to see what different folks assume, to attempt to purchase the greatest digital piano or go to the coolest museums in Rome. But I can get caught. I perseverate — I revisit easy selections time and again.

There are many reliable causes to not turn out to be an EMT, identical to there are lots of reliable causes to not go on that trip, or watch that scary film, or go to that board sport meetup. You do not need to do any of these issues — you do not need to need to do any of them. I’ve no need to see horror movies (to my spouse’s chagrin). But I saved desirous to be an EMT, regardless of all my causes to not.

Perhaps you’re feeling the identical.

If you’re delaying doing one thing scary and new, too, assume: are you inventing causes to not do it? Maybe you must do it anyway.

You may take pleasure in it.

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Thanks to NOLS and the NOLS WEMT college students for making the course so superior. Thanks to NHVA for welcoming me. Thanks to Javier Valencia, Jaime Romo, & Dan Walker for the NOLS photographs. Used with permission. Thanks to Atherai Maran for modifying.